Horse Calmers

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neweventer

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After a very stressful first show jumping with my little mare, I have decided to take her right back to the drawing board. Our first attempt at show jumping resulted in a very sweaty stressed little madam.
She has all the ability and schools lovely at home over fences and on the flat, but it all got a bit too much for her.
I am looking at taking her to an unaffiliated dressage at prelim level in a couple of weeks.I figure that dressage comps don't have as much going on and I hope will be a bit easier for her to take on board as a set time means we won't be hanging on for to long.
Having said all that I was wondering if anyone could suggest a calmer that can be used to help chill her out. She travels well but gets very het up with lots and lots of other horses. I thought given it's the first time we'll be going anywhere since her aweful experience last time I should maybe give her (a legal) chill pill!

Any ideas? At home she's quite chilled out! So not really needing somethin that is going to be long lasting/needed to be given for an extended time frame
 
I've been recommended Relax Me, by Horse First - and actually bought some recently for my horse for a reccuperation period of box rest.

I haven't used it - and you can have it for the price of postage. PM me if you want it.
 
Horse First didn't touch my fizzy mare. No luck with it at all, though it did coincide with her coming into season. Trying NAF Oestress now with NAF Head shake relief, no luck with that either yet.

Very disappointed with HF, esp given its price.
 
I tried horse first on my mare but it didn't work, then I tried Magnitude by Equine america, now I used my own doseage on it to get her settled but once she realised everything was ok and got used to things i've been able to reduce the dosage but it works a treat, her problem was more nerves than just being b*tchy, so now she is on normal doses and it quite laid back but it did take 1 year to get this way. If you can get them settled enough to get the work/ experience into them I find they usually come on their own time.
 
I find all these calmers very difficult to evaluate, there always seems to be other factors that come into account, whether it be a change of field/ field partner causing separation anxiety, spring grass, hormones associated with seasons, new horse to the Yard, pollen allergy with summer etc. This means I can never hand on heart detremine the effectiveness of a product 100%, due to changeable factors which effect validity of the results.
One thing's for sure, all of them aren't cheap and I'm "sort of" concluding now, that I should just save my money, as the difference isn't really measurable, for me.
 
Any substance that would have a significant calming effect on a horse would be immediately banned by the FEI. Many herbs and plants that have a substantiated calming effect are on that list. I don't think these products work and I know lots of people who have tried them including myself. I agree with Rotchana about many factors playing a part. There are no quick fixes, I think gradually taking your horse out to quiet events and then building up will hopefully help.
 
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